


New Years

by Bullheaded25



Series: 31 Days of Gendrya [6]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 31 Days of Gendrya, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bodyguard AU, F/M, New Years party, not really body guard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 18:04:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15801789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bullheaded25/pseuds/Bullheaded25
Summary: Arya is forced into attending the Baratheon New Years party with her parents and while hiding from suitors her mother sends her way, she meets Gendry.Day 6: Bodyguard AU





	New Years

Lady Catelyn stepped into a stride beside her youngest daughter, looping arms with Arya as they approached the paved steps leading to the Baratheon estate. Arya knew what was coming but she grabbed her mother’s hand nonetheless. Together, they waited for her father to finish speaking with the valet driver and join them.

 

“There will be many young and eligible bachelors here tonight,” Lady Catelyn said. Arya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She instead kept her eyes forward and nodded. Her mother sighed. “Arya, you will marry when you wish but you haven’t even  _ dated  _ before.”

 

“Why does it matter?” Arya bristled. “If I can marry when I wish, why do you insist that I meet a man at any function you and father force me to attend?”

 

“Force you?” Her mother repeated indignately, her brows raised high when Arya finally looked at her. “Arya, you have done as you wished for the past twenty-three years. I cannot understand why you have no interest in marrying? Is it women that you are interested in -”

 

“Mother!” Arya exclaimed, throwing her head back and laughing. “If you didn’t narrow down the available men _ or women _ to those in specific families, I probably would have married straight out of high school like Robb!”

 

Lady Catelyn opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the arrival of her husband.

 

“Girls,” Lord Eddard called as he approached them. He gave Arya a knowing smile, kissing her crown, and then grabbed his wife’s arm. “Come now, better get in before it’s too late.”

 

“I’m so excited,” Arya said sarcastically, grabbing her father’s other arm and rolling her eyes. He gave her another smile but didn’t respond. 

 

When they entered the grand foyer of the estate, a young boy took their jackets and gave then a ticket for them before allowing them to lead themselves into the house. Arya separated from her parents quickly, hoping to find Renly Baratheon and his partner Loras. She knew that once she found them she would find the spiked punch and the night would become much, much more tolerable. 

 

It was expected for them to attend, as it was for the Starks. Unluckily for Arya, however, she was the only available Stark child this year. Robb’s son had come down with a fever the day before, Sansa was away for work, Bran had been allowed to attend the Reed’s New Years party instead, and Rickon had chosen to stay at school for the holidays this year. Arya, the single-and-not-ready-to-mingle disappointment, hadn’t been able to come up with an excuse when her mother asked, and so here she was. At Robert Baratheon’s New Years party once again by herself, with several suitors headed her way thanks to her Lady mother.

 

“Oh fuck,” she muttered under her breath as she saw Ned Dayne smile at her and begin to make his way across the room.She ducked down and ran behind the tables and through the first door she saw. 

 

The door pushed open to reveal the expansive kitchen. Arya snorted to herself as she looked around the room,  _ what a large kitchen for Cersei Lannister to never use _ . Arya froze mid-step as her eyes found the large island in the center of the room. There was an equally as large young man standing on the opposite side of it. He was frozen in place like Arya, his bright blue eyes were watching her and his mouth was full with some type of desert that had not yet been brought out to the party.

 

“What are you eating?”

“Er - fudge?” the man responded thickly, forcing himself to swallow the mouthful of chocolate he had been eating. “Can I help you with something?”

 

Arya realized his clothes after that. He was wearing something similar to the boy who had taken their jackets. “No,” Arya dismissed, approaching the island now. “My mother is trying to set me up with stupid men here so I am hiding. Have we met before?”

 

He seemed oddly familiar. While Arya was sure she would remember meeting him simply for his height, his face was somewhere in her memory but she couldn’t place it. 

 

“No,” he answered hesitantly.

 

“Are you sure?” Arya pressed, looking around at all the different desserts on platters. “You look familiar.”

 

The man grimaced and ran his hand through his thick black hair. His face was screwed up stupidly as if he was trying very hard to think. 

 

“Are you related to Renly?” Arya asked suddenly, much more loudly than she had intended to. 

 

The man grimaced again. “Er - yeah,” he said slowly. “I’m… I’m Gendry. Renly is my uncle.”

 

“Uncle?” Arya repeated, frowning. Her brain was working too slowly to keep the conversation flowing easily and Gendry seemed to notice this too because he was forcing back a smile. 

 

“I’m Robert’s bastard,” Gendry supplied her. Arya responded with an enthusiastic “ _ Oh!” _ which caused a large, handsome smile to break across his face.  _ Handsome? _ “One of them, I should say.”

 

“I know your sister, Mya!” Arya told him brightly. “She worked as my mother’s assistant as she attended college.”

 

Gendry’s thick brows furrowed as he studied her. “Who are you again?”

 

“Arya!” She told him in the same bright tone she used before. “Stark,” she added, realizing that that was important in this situation. “And I’m drunk, by the way. I’m not usually quite so ridiculous.”

 

Gendry smiled again, a soft smile this time. 

 

“You’re Lord Stark’s daughter,” he said. “I’ve met your father. He’s a good man. Robert talks about him a good amount.”

 

“He is good,” Arya agreed, matching his smile. Another thought dawned on her. “Why are you working here?”

 

A blush crept onto Gendry’s cheeks. He picked up his glass of punch, he frowned as he tried to think of what to say. “I’m here for an immediate-family event tomorrow evening. Cersei wanted me out of sight tonight with all the guests being here. I figured if they let me stay in the guest house by myself and fill it with beer and food I’d work security for them like I used to.”

 

“Cersei is a cunt,” Arya grunted. Gendry choked on the first gulp of punch he swallowed and set his glass down on the counter roughly, wiping his nose dry. He stared at her for a moment but then shook his head once, grinning at her. 

 

“What are you doing here tonight then?” Gendry asked. “You don’t want to be set up with any guests and you think the hostess is a cunt?”

 

Arya grinned back at him. Then shrugged. “I was forced to come, honestly,” she told him. “The rest of my siblings managed to get out of it but I couldn’t. My mother seems to think that if I come to more functions I’m likely to date someone sooner.”

 

Gendry’s smile faded slightly but he shook whatever he was thinking from his mind. 

 

“Well, I hope you have managed to avoid any suitors sent your way while you’ve been in here,” he told her. He grabbed a plate from the cupboard and filled it with more desserts. “It was nice meeting you, Lady Arya.”

 

Arya scrunched up her nose. “Don’t call me that,” she said out of habit. She shuddered. “Where is the guest house you’re staying at?” Gendry gave her a strange look. “Is it the building at the end of the drive?” 

 

He hesitated once more. “Yes,” he answered. 

 

“Great!” Arya clapped her hands together and grabbed a plate of her own to fill with deserts. “I’ll join you, until the party's over. My parents won’t stay long after midnight. I’ll text my dad and tell him to pick me up from the guest house before they leave the gates!”

 

Gendry watched her stupidly while she picked through the deserts and piled them on her plate. She looked around the kitchen for the back exit Gendry must have entered through and spotted it in the far corner. She turned to see Gendry in the same place.

 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you going to come?”

 

“You shouldn’t be going down there with me,” he said, stepping toward her. “You’re a Lord’s daughter. You’re supposed to be... You're not supposed to be drinking beer and eating candies with some bastard.”

 

Arya stepped toward him and shoved both hands against his chest. Gendry stepped back and nearly fell when he tripped over his own feet. 

 

“You’re stupid,” she told him. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a bastard. Now come on, let’s get out of here.”

 

Gendry eventually followed her, albeit begrudgingly. The two of them walked down the long, pebbled drive toward the estate’s gates. Arya took her heels of after the first fifty feet and carried them, her plate of sweets, and a bottle of vodka she had found before leaving the kitchen all in her arms. Gendry was carrying an extra six pack of beer he had nicked from the house and his plate of sweets in one hand and was using his other hand to eat a sloppy burger he had made himself. 

 

Lady Catelyn had always told Arya she is much like her father - she cares more for a person’s actions than their appearance or status. Arya was always fast to make friends, but it surprised her how easily it was to talk with Gendry. And once he was over his stupid base-born whining, he seemed to think it was easy to talk to Arya, too. By the time they reached the guest house Arya knew Gendry’s middle name, his favorite color, his sport’s team, and that his mother had been a pretty blonde woman named Amber. 

 

Arya also quickly learned that Gendry had been staying in the guest house for the past week, and that he wasn’t expecting visitors. There was dishes filling the sink and clothes spread across one of the chairs in the tv room. 

 

Once the two of them settled on to the plush sofa, Gendry flicked on the tv and turned to the ball drop. They continued their conversations, drinking beer and vodka and shoving their mouths with chocolates. They laughed themselves to tears countless times as they mimicked the Lannisters. 

 

Lord Stark woke her sometime after midnight by gently shaking her shoulder. Arya groaned and opened her eyes blearily. Her father’s face focused and she returned his smile. Gendry jumped awake beside her suddenly and knocked the empty bottle of vodka to the floor. 

 

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Gendry,” Lord Stark told the boy, waving off his drowsy apologies. “Thank you for keeping Arya company tonight. I’m afraid my wife forces her to attend these parties.”

 

“So I heard,” Gendry replied with a smirk at Arya. 

 

“I’ll be in the car,” Lord Stark told his daughter. “Don’t be too long, Arya.”

 

Arya rubbed her hands over her face and sat up, looking around for her belongings. She could see Gendry watching her out of the corner of her eye. 

 

“Where’s your phone?” 

 

“Hm? The coffee table.”

 

Arya smiled and snatched his phone before Gendry could realize what she had asked. She typed her number into it and saved it to his contacts. She pressed it into his chest with a large smile. 

 

“I expect to hang out with you again,” she told him. She stood with her shoes in hand and Gendry followed her to the door her father had just disappeared behind. She turned to face him.

 

“I… I enjoyed hanging out with you, Arya,” Gendry muttered. He rubbed his hand through his hair. 

 

“Good,” she responded, shoving him. She had the odd desire to kiss him. But that was unknown territory. Arya was good at making friends but not at being anything other than friends. 

 

But Arya was brave. She watched Gendry’s tongue dart out to wet his lips and for a moment she thought he would speak, but she saw his eyes dart down to her lips. She realized that he wanted to kiss her too. Arya stood on her toes and pressed her  lips to his for a chaste kiss.

 

She quickly pulled away, her face flushing with heat. Gendry seemed surprised, but delighted nonetheless. Arya shoved his shoulder again for good measure and and pointed a finger at him as if to challenge him. 

 

“You better call me, Waters.”

 

Gendry smiled and bit his lip, stepping with her as she back out of the house. He leaned against the door frame. 

 

“I’ll call you for lunch tomorrow.”

 

Arya smiled like an idiot but nodded. She walked backwards a few more strides before shaking herself and turning to open the car door. Gendry stayed in the door frame until Arya could no longer see him. When she turned back around in her seat she realized that her parents were talking about Gendry. 

 

“Gendry’s a good lad,” her father was saying. “He’s an engineer in the city.”

 

“He’s Robert’s son?” her mother questioned. “One of his bastards?”

 

“Aye,” her father answered, his tone telling his wife not to press the matter. “I’ve heard much about him. Robert is plans to legitimize him, but he says Gendry has refused his every advance.”

  
Before the family reached the Winterfell estate, Arya had a text from an unknown number that read:  _ Hey, it’s Gendry. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t give me some bogus number. :) _

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't let myself write so casually for a while so let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
